What We Do

For an urban bike expedition in D.C., visit the Mount Vernon Trail! Plan ahead for many stops along the way to fully immerse yourself in the nation’s rich history!

The hostilities of World War II did not end all at once. In the United States, they also took place against the somber backdrop of President Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945. A few short days later, on May 8, President Truman announced the unconditional surrender of Germany. Celebrations of V-E (Victory in Europe) Day spilled into the streets across the country and around the world. But the celebrations were tinged with the awareness that the war in the Pacific continued.

You are on the committee that is in charge of deciding what to do with the unfinished Washington Monument. You vote to start over and find a new design. Draw a picture of your idea for a monument to honor George Washington. Do your fellow committee members agree to dismantle the monument and build your design?

For Build Your Own Adventure, you chose to finish the Washington Monument using marble from Lee, Massachusetts. This decision will save money, but the stone is a different color than the section that is already built. It turns out that there are other challenges ahead as well. Now what?

As you Build Your Own Adventure, you choose to fix the foundation of the Washington Monument. It means a delay, so the monument won't be completed in time for the nation's 100th birthday in 1876. And now there's another problem. Where will you get the marble to finish the monument?

Part of the Washington Monument: Build Your Own Adventure series. You chose to finish the Washington Monument.

In March 2018, thanks to support from A+E Networks, the Joan of Arc statue in Meridian Hill Park in Washington, DC, was re-outfitted for battle and revealed to the public as part of the National Park Service’s commemoration of Women’s History Month.

Behold an artistic transition,/ The steps to complete each commission.

For more than 25 years, the Washington Monument sat unfinished, looking like a 150-foot chimney in the middle of Washington, D.C. In this Junior Ranger activity, you can build your own adventure by deciding what to do next. Should the monument be completed or redesigned? How will you overcome the challenges that halted construction?

The first African American regiment to be raised in the North, east of the Mississippi River, the 54th Massachusetts ranks among the famous fighting units of the American Civil War. But did you know that when the 54th Massachusetts first departed Boston for the seat of war, there were more men from Pennsylvania within its ranks than from any other state? At least 124 of its soldiers were from south-central Pennsylvania, with two identifying Gettysburg as their place of birth